Chapter 157 - Depart, To Bei Du!

During the following few days, Zhang Che would meet up with Miss Tienan outside every day, and he even gifted her the one-star gold-quality beast card.{TLN: The unnamed gold-quality card he obtained during his unlucky streak on his latest trip.}

Huang Tielan was overjoyed and gave Zhang Che a tight hug, making him realize the broadness of this miss’s chest for the first time.

– Mmm, I really hope some part of her won’t slim down after she lost weight… – Evil thoughts were born in Zhang Che’s mind, fantasizing his future happiness.

—

During the next two days, Huang Tielan didn’t come find him any more. She had to practice concocting beast cultivation fluid to ensure her enrollment into Bei Du University’s beast card cultivation major was a success.

Zhang Che was helpless about it and could only remain at home. However, this also freed him up to accompany his mother.

Sun Lan had stated that she wouldn’t be joining Zhang Che in Bei Du City in the foreseeable future. She would only join him after Zhang Che’s enrollment into a university in Bei Du City was confirmed and he had settled down.

Despite Zhang Che telling her that he was already a Tier Three beastmaster and was sure to enroll into Bei Du University, he was still unable to persuade her.

“It’s fine, Xiaoche. It’s not like mom will always be staying here. I’ll head over to take care of you when your school term starts.”

Left without a choice, Zhang Che could only stop trying to persuade her.

In any case, the examination shouldn’t take much time. After he passed it, he could still make a trip back and fetch his mother to Bei Du.

——

After his return, Zhang Che was a little unused to not having to battle day in and day out like he did in the beast world. Fortunately, he still had to practice his swordsmanship and archery, or he’d really feel that his bones were starting to turn rusty.

Originally, Zhang Che planned on making a trip to Ci Zhou City to order a custom-made recurve bow for the frisky monkey. However, he had to set off for Bei Du on the twentieth of June, and wouldn’t have much time at home, thus he abandoned the idea.

After he arrived at Bei Du, would he not find better bows there?

It was the largest city in the entire Hua Xia region. Together with its surrounding satellite cities, the population numbered in the hundreds of millions! It went without saying that their neo-weapons research technology would be at the top, as well. How could their bow technology possibly lag behind the puny Ci Zhou City?

Zhang Che was already a Tier Four beastmaster. With his spiritual sea being thrice as large as that of ordinary beastmasters, he could employ a total of fifteen subdued beasts at one go.

However, his spiritual sea was only holding thirteen beast cards at the moment. The Wind Shadow Wolf and other beast cards that could no longer keep up with him had already been sold away.

Originally, Zhang Che planned on filling up the spots with two beast cards whose quality were more ordinary, to avoid drawing too much attention from others for exposing too much good stuff.

However, after thinking this through, it might not be enough to distinguish himself from tens of thousands of Tier Two student-beastmasters using only the three-star gold-quality Gale Wolf King and two-star gold-quality Fiery Scorpion. They weren’t necessarily enough to guarantee his enrollment into Bei Du University. He might even have to expose a dark gold-quality beast to make sure everything went well.

Since that was the case, why would he fill up the empty slots in his spiritual sea with those trash beast cards? However, leaving two slots unused didn’t sit well with Zhang Che, either.

As such, he placed two Psychedelic Ghost-Patterned Butterfly cards, which he had fused to four-stars previously, into his spiritual sea, slowly raising their quality. Zhang Che was increasingly looking forward to the effects of the Psychedelic Ghost-Patterned Butterfly’s poisonous powder.

These fellows had the rarely-seen B-Rank Potential, and could advance to dark gold-quality at their peak. Not only that, when Zhang Che’s fusion skill increased to level three, he could fuse the two four-star cards into a five-star card!

At that time, what changes would there be to reflect the powers of a five-star dark gold-quality Psychedelic Ghost-Patterned Butterfly? Zhang Che couldn’t wait to see it!

The two-star silver-quality variant he was using now was already capable of sending low-tier exotic beasts into a dazed state. If it was a five-star dark gold-quality one, could it directly influence the exotic beast into becoming his combat ally?

Although even if that came to be true, and the amount of time they would fall under control wouldn’t be long, it would still be an extremely shocking ability.

If its powers truly reached that degree, Zhang Che would have completed the first steps of building an army of beasts. Other than his subdued beasts and pets, he could even command a group of exotic beasts. He could simply act rampantly¹ in the beast world outside of the safety zone! {TL: Walk horizontally in the raws.}

“Such a pity that I didn’t find any commander-class beast among the group of Psychedelic Ghost-Patterned Butterflies. Wouldn’t its potential be even greater?” Zhang Che felt a tad of disappointment as he fantasized himself commanding a huge army of beasts.

He decided that the next time he returned to Qian Wei City, he’d go back to the area where he discovered the Psychedelic Ghost-Patterned Butterfly to look around. There was no reason for them to not have a boss-class exotic beast in such a huge group, was there?

——

Four days went by in the blink of an eye. It was now the thirty-sixth year of the new age, twentieth of June, the day when all of the candidates set off for Bei Du for their examination.

As per his homeroom teacher Han Sheqing’s reminder, Zhang Che woke up early and left in a hurry for the school after eating a bowl of noodles prepared by his mother.

Speaking of which, it had been hard on Zhang Che for the last few days. He didn’t have a single filling meal at home; he could only make excuses that he was going out for a walk to leave the house and settle his meal problems… after changing his appearance.

This deeply troubled Zhang Che . – Will my appetite grow even bigger in the future?-

If that were truly the case, perhaps he could only go live in the beast worlds permanently!

—

The gathering time at the school was eight in the morning. It was only slightly past six when Zhang Che left home. It might seem like he had plenty of time, but he had to disguise himself and have a proper meal first. So, he couldn’t afford any delay at all, and went about with hurried steps.

As Zhang Che had expected, it was very close to eight o’clock when he finally reached the school. A convoy of large armored transportation vehicles was parked at the schoolyard. All of the candidates from Qian Wei City were assembled at the school, gathered next to the convoy under their respective teachers’ leads.

As the Number Two School was the closest to the military camp, this time the candidates were all gathered here.

At eight o’clock sharp, everyone were gathered. An official from the city government office made a concise and comprehensive speech, motivating the candidates to bring out their fighting spirit and strive towards enrolling into a good school…

When the official’s speech ended, all of the candidates boarded the convoy of armored transportation vehicles in a systematic manner, under the guidance of the teachers.

There were two teachers accompanying the Number Two School candidates. One of them was called Tian Shirong, the other Niu Feng. Zhang Che didn’t know either of them. However, he was sure they weren’t teachers from the teaching faculty. Otherwise, he’d have an impression of them, more or less. It seemed like they were the school’s directors, or something similar.

Eight armored transportation vehicles were filled to the brim by over two hundred candidates and teachers, and they set off towards the military camp in the suburbs.

——

Zhang Che sat in the vehicle. He saw the excited looks on the candidates’ faces, watching them as they discussed about their long journey away from home. He suddenly felt very isolated.

-Could I still get used to the life of a student?-

After thinking for a little, Zhang Che couldn’t help but fall silent.

This time, every one of them were specifically enrolling into universities that specialized in nurturing beastmasters. They would surely be very different from ordinary university students.

At the very least, the students who enrolled into this field of study were sure to enter the beast worlds or venture into the deserted lands on Mercury that were far from human settlements. There would be tons of hot-blooded battles to come, and unseen dangers similarly aplenty.

The true excitement had yet to begin!